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Regulation of Magnetic Behavior and Electronic Configuration in Mn doped ZnO Nanorods By Surface Modification
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Dilute magnetic semiconductors (DMSs) become one of the most interesting materials for the future chip and information storage application, which not only possesses the transport property pertaining to traditional semiconductors but also exhibits the spin-controllable ferromagnetic characteristics. In particular, the rapid development of technology induces the nano-scale DMSs materials have been extensively explored. In nano-scale DMSs materials, under the surface modifications the local atomic and electronic structure of materials varies dramatically, and such complex surface structural rearrangements can effectively tune the existence of room temperature ferromagnetism. Because of its local characteristics, the fine structure of materials, however, cannot be well described through conventional methods. From the atomic-level point of view the surface interaction and the effect of the surfactant on the electronic configuration of magnetic atoms have remained elusive. A team from the Institute of High Energy Physics has gained in-depth insight into the magnetic behavior and electronic configuration in Mn-doped ZnO nanorods by surface modification. This research has been published in Chemistry of Materials by 2012.

The team successfully tuned the magnetic behavior in Mn-doped ZnO nanorods from paramagnetism to ferromagnetism via surface modification. From the microscopic point of view the surface Mn ions exists in the form of 3+ valence and fits a distorted tetrahedral environment. Different surface modifications induce alteration of the Mn 3d-anion p hybridization strength, which directly mediate the ferromagnetism of this system.

This research well reveals the interaction mechanism between the surfactant molecules and nanocrystal atoms for better tunning magnetic behavior of nano-DMSs systems via surface atomic changes. Most importantly, the synergetic combination of synchrotron-based hard and soft x-ray absorption spectroscopy can be used to obtain complementary structural information by detecting the bulk and surface regions, and have a huge potential for future structural elucidation in surface and interface science science.

 Article:

Linjuan Zhang, Jian-Qiang Wang, Jiong Li, Shuo Zhang*, Zheng Jiang, Jing Zhou, Jie Cheng, Tiandou Hu, Wensheng Yan, Xiangjun Wei, Ziyu Wu*. Regulation of Magnetic Behavior and Electronic Configuration in Mn doped ZnO Nanorods By Surface Modification. Chem. Mater., 24, 1676-1681, 2012.

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